Back to RWRNDAA Contents

Title XII — MATTERS RELATING TO OTHER NATIONS

P. L. 108-375

House Conference Report 108-767

(a) REPORT REQUIRED. — Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives a report on contractors supporting deployed forces and reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

(b) MATTERS TO BE INCLUDED. — The report required by subsection (a) shall include, at a minimum, the following matters with respect to contractors, and employees of contractors, described in subsection (a):

(1) A description of the overall chain of command and oversight mechanisms that are in place to ensure adequate command and supervision of such contractor employees in critical security roles.

(2) A description of sanctions that are available to be imposed on such a contractor employee who —

(A) fails to comply with a requirement of law or regulation that applies to such employee; or

(B) engages in other misconduct.

(3) A description of disciplinary and criminal actions brought against contractor employees during the period beginning on May 1, 2003, and ending on the date of the enactment of this Act.

(4) An explanation of the legal status of contractor employees engaged in the performance of security functions in Iraq after the transfer of sovereign power to Iraq on June 28, 2004.

(5) A specification of casualty and fatality figures for contractor employees supporting deployed forces and reconstruction efforts in Iraq, shown, to the extent practicable, in the following categories:

(A) Total casualties and total fatalities.

(B) Casualties and fatalities among —

     (i) nationals of the United States;

     (ii) nationals of Iraq; and

     (iii) nationals of states other than the United States and Iraq.

(6) A description, to the maximum extent practicable, of incidents in which contractor employees supporting deployed forces and reconstruction efforts in Iraq have been engaged in hostile fire or other incidents of note during the period beginning on May 1, 2003, and ending on the date of the enactment of this Act.

(c) PLANS. — The Secretary shall include with the re- port under subsection (a) the following plans:

(1) A plan for establishing and implementing a process for collecting data on individual contractors, the value of the contracts, the number of casualties incurred, and the number of personnel in Iraq performing the following services for the Department of Defense and other Federal agencies:

(A) Personal security details.

(B) Nonmilitary site security.

(C) Nonmilitary convoy security.

(D) Interrogation services at interrogation centers operated by the Department of Defense.

(2) A plan for ensuring that military commanders in the theater of operations have accurate information on the number, types, and sources of weapons and other critical equipment (such as body armor, armored vehicles, secure communications and friend-foe identification) that contractor personnel performing services specified in paragraph (1) are authorized to possess.

(d) COORDINATION. — In the preparation of the report under this section (including the plans under subsection (c)), the Secretary of Defense shall coordinate, as appropriate, with the head of any Federal agency that is involved in the procurement of services from contractors supporting deployed forces and reconstruction efforts in Iraq. The head of any such agency shall provide to the Secretary of Defense such information as the Secretary may require about such contractors to complete the report.  

The Senate amendment contained a provision (sec. 1021) that would require a report on contractor security in Iraq.

The House bill contained no similar provision.

The House recedes with an amendment that would clarify the reporting requirements.

With regard to contractor casualties and fatalities, the report would include:  1) a plan for establishing and implementing a process for collecting data on casualties and fatalities; and  2) a requirement for data on casualties and fatalities that have occurred since the conclusion of major combat operations in Iraq.  The conferees understand that the Department of Defense has not yet established a comprehensive system for collecting data on contractor casualties and fatalities and do not believe that the requirement to provide retrospective data should be, or needs to be, implemented in a manner that would become burdensome on the combatant command or on combat units, but should be done in a manner and to an extent that does not undermine military operations.  The conferees believe that the Department should be able to collect this information accurately and comprehensively from the contractors themselves.  The requirement to establish a plan for collecting contractor casualty and fatality data in the future should ensure that such data is collected routinely and uniformly.

With regard to the requirement to establish a plan for establishing and implementing a process for collecting data on contractors performing security functions in Iraq, the conferees understand that the categories of security functions performed by contractors are not mutually exclusive and expect the Department to indicate any overlap to the best of its ability.

Senate Report 108-260